September 15, 2009

Discovery Lecture highlights global bionanotechnology advances

Venture capitalist Ken Bradley of ARCH Partners in Chicago will deliver his keynote talk, "Transformation of Science into Products: Process, Examples and Trends in Serving Diverse Markets at the Interface of Biology and Nanotechnology," at 4 p.m. Monday (Sept. 21). Roderic Pettigrew, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, will give his lecture, titled "Bionanotechnology in 21st Century Healthcare," at 10 a.m. Tuesday (Sept. 22).

Both talks, which will be in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall, are free and open to the public.

"Dr. Bradley's lecture will examine the commercial outlook for nanotechnology applications in medicine, and Dr. Pettigrew will outline the foundation for nanotechnology's potential benefits for health-care delivery," said Charles Buck, director of operations at the Bindley Bioscience Center.

The two-day event coincides with the international symposium Bionanotechnology on a Global Scale, which is sponsored by Purdue researchers at Discovery Park's Bindley Bioscience and Birck Nanotechnology centers and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

A workshop focusing on nanomedicine research projects and opportunities is planned from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday (Sept. 21) on the Global Research Laboratory partnership between the Korean and Purdue research team. Contact Luanne Ludwig of Bindley at lml@purdue.edu to register for the workshop, which will be in the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, Room 121.

"This Discovery Lecture will marry the direction in medicine where researchers are trying to advance efforts in the personalized medicine arena to diagnose and treat illness more efficiently and cost-effectively," said event co-organizer James Leary, the School of Veterinary Medicine Professor of Nanomedicine at Birck and professor of basic medical sciences and biomedical engineering. "Many of the bad side effects and limitations of current drugs could be avoided by the use of targeted nano-delivery systems that are now being developed and tested."

Purdue's Discovery Park and the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment are co-sponsoring the free lectures. The Lilly Endowment provided a $1 million gift to Purdue in 2005 to sponsor the Discovery Lecture Series.

Ken Bradley
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Bradley joined ARCH in January 2008 as venture partner, bringing a rich background in discovering and developing nascent technologies for supporting the firm's life and physical sciences teams with a special focus on micro- and nanotechnologies. Before that, he served as chief executive officer of Arryx, a startup company commercializing Holographic Optical Trapping technology for laser-based micro- and nanoscopic instrumentation in the life sciences sector.

Haemonetics, a $2 billion firm based in Massachusetts, purchased Arryx in 2007. Bradley remains vice president of development at Haemonetics, which is developing blood management technologies that are key components of collection, surgery and transfusion services. Bradley earned his doctoral degree in experimental condensed matter physics from Brown University and his bachelor's degree in physics from Cornell University.

Before becoming the first director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering for the National Institutes of Health in 2002, Pettigrew was a professor of radiology medicine at Emory University and professor of bioengineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also served as director of the Emory Center for Magnetic Resonance Research at Emory University School of Medicine.

Roderic Pettigrew
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Pettigrew, who also received a medical degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine, is known for his pioneering research involving four-dimensional imaging of the heart using magnetic resonance. He graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in physics from Morehouse College where he was a Merrill Scholar, and a master's degree in nuclear science and engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The Purdue team on this project is led by Kinam Park, the Showalter Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and a professor of pharmaceutics; J. Paul Robinson, a professor of biomedical engineering and veterinary medicine and director of Purdue's Cytometry Laboratories at Bindley; Ji-Xin Cheng, an assistant professor biomedical engineering and chemistry; and Leary.

The Purdue team is working with researchers Kuiwon Choi of KIST, who is leading the South Korean team along with Ick Chan Kwon, the program's co-principal investigator.

Research teams from Discovery Park and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology are collaborating on a five-year, $4.5 million project to develop molecular imaging and nanotechnology tools to simultaneously diagnose and treat cancer and chronic and infectious diseases.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology, also known as KIST, and Purdue developed a research proposal utilizing the complementary strengths of both institutions' internationally renowned research groups.

Writer: Phillip Fiorini, 765-496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu

Source: Charles Buck, 765-494-2208, cbuck@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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